technology

What does it take to build a connection between you and your customer? Forget the talk, look at what businesses are actually doing. What are they doing? On what are the folks spending money and effort?

MIT AgeLab's Agnes (Age Gain Now Empathy System) was brilliant at generating PR for the organisation. How useful it was in reality and how much good it did - I don't know. But what a terrific way to promote the message about ageing (and MITAge Lab).

The next digital industrial revolution is already well under way. But it is not happening where technology visionaries or capital markets are generally looking. It is not a revolution just in technology, machinery, software, or speed.

It’s easy to get depressed about the world these days. Watch the news for five minutes or more and you’re bound to see signs of the apocalypse. War, poverty, climate change, a new pandemic, there always seems to be new trouble arising somewhere that threatens our health and security.

In the Innovator's Solution, Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen argued that, during the early stages of an industry, firms with wholly proprietary products have the advantage. New technology is always glitchy, so engineering the entire architecture is the best way to ensure quality.

It used to be said that what was good for General Motors was good for the country. The thinking was that by supporting the engines of prosperity, we’re all going to be better off. Yet it would also seem that, in many cases at least, what makes industry successful can also improve the public sector.